


Feathering

by RedScribbler



Category: Breath of the Wild Sequel - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, botw 2: eLINKtric booGANONloo
Genre: Gen, Haircuts, Introspection, Missing Scene, Set after BOTW and before the sequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-20 06:56:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19371637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedScribbler/pseuds/RedScribbler
Summary: She tied half of her hair back into a rough ponytail with a piece of string then unsheathed her knife. It was of Gerudo make and curved slightly, sharp only on one side. She held it on her lap as she went over the steps in her head for the hundredth time.It was only when she was sure she was ready that she raised the knife and began.~~Or, How the Haircut Happened





	Feathering

Zelda had been thinking about it in some form or another ever since she felt that first breath of wind whip around her as she stood barefoot on the dry grass of Hyrule field.

It started as an idle thought. There was far too much else to think about doing, an infinite number of tasks and trials lay ahead of her.

Until they started getting done. 

A rhythm was easier to find than she expected and as she stepped up to help, she found a world more than willing to heal. Her vague plans, bubbling and broiling for a century, took a more solid form. Conversations brought clarity, from the grand questions over rights-to-rule and land division, to the everyday queries, a dry well, a sick horse, that needed answers just as urgently.

As things became more concrete, lines being drawn, things falling into place, the thought came back. She dismissed it again, made excuses. There was no time, there was no need, there were more important things to do.

It still nipped at her consciousness. Every time a hard breeze blew. When she spent hours waiting around after a bath. When she shared a saddle with Link.

They were in Rito Village when she finally made up her mind.

The pair of them were travelling to the North Lomei Labyrinth and were taking their time exploring Tabantha on the way. It wasn’t her first time in the village but she wasn’t as familiar with it as Link, who walked into people’s homes like he owned them. 

The Rito, for the most part, welcomed them with open wings. Link’s comfort was echoed back by them, particularly the village’s children who hopped on him like a climbing frame from the moment they saw him. 

It took some time, and a lot of work, for Zelda to swallow down the jealousy that bloomed in her throat when strangers beamed at the sight of him. When Zelda walked into a room, she knew she was respected but all she had to do was mention Link and eyes would light up and stories of him would spill from a multitude of mouths.

It was almost funny to feel that same bite of envy she used to when they first met. To hear people praise him. Now, however, it wasn’t because of any inherited sword or grand destiny. It was because he made their favourite recipe, or played hide-and-seek with them for an afternoon, or found them a rare beetle. It was because of who he was, not what he was supposed to be.

The jealousy was tempered a little by the fact that he shared who he was with her as well. A slice of nutcake, an evening horseback ride, a loud laugh, were all the little things that showed her his real self without the weight of responsibility on his shoulders.Those things only proved to her that he had more than earned the right to show all of Hyrule who their hero was without shackles or constraints.

She was warming up to the idea that she had earned it too.

At the moment Link was a level below her, cooking dinner for nine with Amali. From the noises that echoed up to her perch on the walkway, it was more of Amali trying to stop Link from experimenting too much with her ingredients. He was a good cook but he could get a little adventurous for most people’s tastes. She couldn’t hear exactly what type of fish Amali was trying to spare being smothered in Goron spice but she hoped it would be ready soon. The walk to the village had whet her appetite. 

The culinary debate below was mostly drowned out by birdsong from above. Kass was conducting his daughters in their daily practice and the sound was divine. At this point in the evening they would normally be winding down but with the delay in their dinner, the girls had started up a chorus of how hungry they were, complaining in perfect harmony. Zelda was certain they could be heard all over the village but Kass was laughing too hard to rein them in.

The sense of peace was almost overwhelming.

To know that children could whine for food and their parents could giggle at them without fear of anything greater than a temper tantrum was a relief that left her feeling gutted. It was a reminder of the cost it took to get here.

She shook her head, casting off the weight of that kind of thinking. Just as she couldn’t deny the loss that came with being able to sit and watch the world pass her by now, she also couldn’t deny that there was nothing to be done with that loss but accept it, and ensure it never happened again.

The past would only fall further behind her with every step she took. 

The wind blew through her and she was reminded of why she came up here in the first place as it tossed her hair all about and she wrenched it away from her face in tangled strands.

The little plank of wood she sat on was nestled in between two houses. It was for strengthening their foundations and far too narrow for a Rito adult to fit into but she had often seen children, and even Hylian tourists, tuck themselves into them to look out over Lake Totori.

The sun was setting and the last few rays of light stained the water orange.  
She pulled her legs up from where they dangled over the edge and tucked them underneath her, sitting up straight to banish the sleepiness that came from the warmth of the afternoon. A hard shape dug into her side and she shifted the small scabbard on her hip so it wouldn’t dig into her.

Rolling her shoulders back, she reached up and began undoing her braids. Soft waves fell down and covered her face before she pushed them away. She ran her fingers through her hair to make sure they hadn’t knotted. When they were down and all of her hair was loose, she took the brush that nice salesman with the huge backpack had given her at the Tabantha stable and combed it all through over and over again. The repetitive feeling was soothing, like lapping water.

One of her few and favourite memories of her mother was the queen brushing through her hair. She had doted on it and Zelda had always been so proud of how much it looked like hers. She tried to copy her style but her mother would just laugh and tease her little bird about building a nest on her head.

When she was sick, her hair got thin and brittle. It cracked like straw and fell out in clumps. She would brush Zelda’s hair for hours, on the days she had the strength for it, thanking the Goddess that at least she could still do that.

It was only when the colours leaked from the lake below and fell into darkness that Zelda put the brush down. Memories had distracted her from her task. 

The wind was picking up as well. If she didn’t do it now, she would have to start all over again.

The singing from above had stopped. The clack of dishes came from below.

She tied half of her hair back into a rough ponytail with a piece of string then unsheathed her knife. It was of Gerudo make and curved slightly, sharp only on one side. She held it on her lap as she went over the steps in her head for the hundredth time. 

It was only when she was sure she was ready that she raised the knife and began.

~~

Link couldn’t help raising an eyebrow at Amali as her children praised the smell of his stew.

“Don’t give me that look,” She said as she passed bowls to him, “I still think it will be too spicy for them.”

He shrugged. Time would tell.

Kree and Kheel were laying out cushions around the stew pot in a circle, struggling to squeeze in nine while Genli and Kotts took out too many spoons and started to hand them out. Notts was helping her father take off his accordion, although her idea of help seemed to be just tugging at the straps until Kass lay it on the floor.

“It does smell good,” He agreed, sitting cross-legged on a cushion. 

Link turned to beam at him, bowls in hand, until he noticed who had, and more importantly who hadn’t, walked into the kitchen for dinner. He handed the bowls to Notts to distribute as he did a headcount.

Kass noticed and tapped his shoulder for attention.

“If you are looking for Her Highness,” He lowered his voice so Link had to lean over to hear him, “I think she went for a walk. She seemed… lost in thought.”

Link bit his lip and looked to the doorway.

“I’m sure she’ll join us soon,” Kass lay a hand on his shoulder, “We should start before it gets cold.”

“There’s nothing even remotely cold in this,” Amali said, having overheard the tail end of his sentence. She sat beside her husband and grabbed the ladle resting in the stew pot, “You wouldn’t believe how many Sunshrooms he brought with him.”

Kass laughed as the girls let out a round of ‘eww’s at the thought of eating mushrooms.

“Vegetables are good for you,” He countered.

Link assured them that they were mostly broken up as he walked back to the counter to grab the wheat bread he made yesterday at the Rito stable. It was already sliced and he was about to bring it over on the cutting board when a sound from outside caught his attention.

Paying attention to noise was what kept him alive in the wild, and learning to filter it out kept him sane when he was in civilisation.

But ever since Zelda came back to him, the sound he listened for most was her footsteps. Their absence made him uneasy. 

He strained his ears for the sounds that caught his attention. They were to the left? No, to the left and above. Not in a house… beside one? Not on the path either, closer to the empty air that wrapped around the village. He tilted his head to the side to see if he could pinpoint it further.

“Mister Scary Hylian looks like a doggy,” Kotts stage-whispered behind him. 

Her sisters giggled and Amali scolded them for teasing but Link blocked them out, leaning against the windowsill and focusing.

The swish of fabric moving, a dull thump as something soft hit wood, the silken swipe of a knife cleanly cutting.

“Link?”

No distressed breathing, no calls for help. The rhythm of the knife constant and even.

“Um? Link?”

It was close, probably just a floor above him.

“Mister Link?” 

He froze as a little hand tugged at the end of his tunic. It was only when he turned to meet the concerned eyes of all the family that he realised he had hoisted a knee onto the counter and was practically leaning out of the window.

Genli blinked up at him from where she held onto his clothes. He smiled, patted her head and told her he would be back in a minute.

Without another word, he heaved himself fully out of the window and started to climb up the side of the building.

“Woah!”

“Link?”

“Cool!” 

“Mister Scary Hylian is weird.”

He ignored the voices and headed for the sound above. He dug his fingers into nooks and hauled himself up columns and over roofs. A hop, skip and jump brought him to the edge of the next level and, clutching tightly, he shimmied over a few feet and grabbed for the strut poking out from the floor of the house above. He eased his body up with both hands, clinging to the strut like a monkey before swinging upright and slowly standing on it. There was barely enough room to balance and as he stumbled off-kilter, he used the momentum to throw himself onto the sliver of wood he could see poking out from between the building he was beside and its neighbour.

He landed hard on the plank -his knees would be paying for that later- with a loud thud and nearly crashed into Zelda who had been sitting on the narrow outcropping, just out of his sight.

She screamed and he had to pinwheel his arms to avoid falling back into nothing as she swung a dagger vaguely in his direction.

“What in Hylia’s name do you think you’re-?” She sputtered as soon as she recognised him, “You can’t just appear out of nowhere like that, I could have-” She shoved the knife back into her belt with red cheeks, “I came up here for privacy, you know, you can’t just follow um… It… it is perfectly safe for me to…”

She trailed off and tried not to squirm as Link stared at her. He clearly hadn’t heard a word she said, all of his attention on what she had just done.

Bundles of hair lay around her, stray stands of blonde coating her legs and feet like another layer against the cold.

Her hair was cut to just above her shoulders, choppy and uneven at the back where she couldn’t see it. She had left two strands at the sides of her head long for styling but loose, they dangled limply and rustled in the night’s breeze. 

Link stared without blinking, still as a statue on the edge of the platform

She tucked them behind her ears and tried to sweep hair off of her dark trousers. She couldn’t meet his eye. 

There was a plan she had put together in her head for how this would all go, how she would show him, and he had quite literally stepped all over it.

Zelda tried to start the little speech she had thought through anyway.

“I, um, I’ve been thinking about… it was time for a change and, eh, with all our travel and how much the weather varies and it’s getting into the warmer seasons and-“

She almost bit her tongue as he leaned forward suddenly and pinched a strand of hair inbetween his fingers, scrutinizing it with sharp eyes. He felt the length of it, curling it slightly.

“Um, w-what?” She stammered.

He didn’t answer, instead leaning a hand on her shoulder for balance as he circled behind her on his haunches to look at her cut from the back. She could feel his knuckles brush the back of her neck as he carded his hand through her hair.

His touch was curious. She had seen this kind of scrutiny from him before, when he examined plants for foraging or the quality of a new shirt. He was tactile in a way he had never been before the Calamity. 

It both buoyed and broke her heart.

There was no duty here that distanced them, no burden born of status on either side. It took the end of the world to bring out this comfort in him. She could have known it so much sooner if it hadn’t been for her own insecurities and fears.

How much time had she lost to being stuck in own head?

Zelda was abruptly knocked out of those thoughts as Link ruffled her hair with both hands.

“H-Hey!”

She turned to glare at him and caught the wide grin on his face.

“What was that about?” She shook her head and waved him off.

He held his hands up in surrender but his smile was unapologetic.

“It suits you,” he said.

She paused in trying to smooth it out and looked him in the eye.

“You think so?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Her smile grew wide enough to match his own.

“Yes... yes, so do I!”

His smile reached his eyes. 

With an ‘oof’, he stood and held out a hand to her. She grabbed it and he pulled her to her feet. Blonde ropes fell from her lap.

Zelda kept holding on with one hand and ran the other through her hair. 

It was an odd feeling. Her hair had been long her entire life. Like her mother's. Like all the Zeldas in her history books. This was new; dizzying in its difference to everything she knew about what she was supposed to be.

She loved it.

“I’ll have to borrow a mirror to tidy it up,” She murmured, feeling the crooked ends.

“Later,” Link tugged her to the path, “Dinner first.”

She murmured her agreement and followed. 

The very last shreds of daylight were barely peeking over the Vah Medoh’s beak and she raised her eyes to watch them fade. Her head was weightless.

They made their way back to the comfort of food and friends, hand-in-hand, with thin strands floating in the breeze, catching the last rays of sun and leaving a trail of airy gold behind them.

**Author's Note:**

> i've been obsessed with botw ever since i got it and the sequel news murdered me completely, thx nintendo
> 
> come chat @ red-scribbler.tumblr.com


End file.
